Posted on 11/10/2009 1:44:50 PM PST by NormsRevenge
VATICAN CITY – E.T. phone Rome. Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.
"The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory.
Funes, a Jesuit priest, presented the results Tuesday of a five-day conference that gathered astronomers, physicists, biologists and other experts to discuss the budding field of astrobiology — the study of the origin of life and its existence elsewhere in the cosmos.
Funes said the possibility of alien life raises "many philosophical and theological implications" but added that the gathering was mainly focused on the scientific perspective and how different disciplines can be used to explore the issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
E.T. phone Rome. Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.
They have GOT to be f**king kidding.
To think that we humans are the only life in the universe is the height of egotism .....
What’s there to study? It’s possible but there’s no evidence. There, that took 10 seconds.
God has been and will be for Eternity. To think he only created Earth, and that everything else out there is just to look at, really discredit’s God’s Almighty Power.
We are not alone imo. But the chances of ever making contact outside of God’s will is less than 0.
>>But the chances of ever making contact outside of God’s will is less than 0.<<
Truth be told. Our Lord is in control. The Vatican is looking at that possibility. It’s my money going to them and I don’t mind.
Interesting development.
Indeed!
We know that there are other creatures than just the earthly ones. There are spiritual creatures such as the angels. There are the living beings that praise the Lord in the throne room.
Whether there is other organic life in the universe is not said.
What is said is that the start and end of the universe appears tied to human history. That makes it unlikely that there is other life in the universe, but not impossible.
bookmark
I suppose this is worth discussing on a theoretical basis. IF there is alien life, then what are the theological implications?
But, frankly, it’s extremely doubtful that the Vatican can afford to be at the cutting edge on this particular question, when it comes to actually FINDING alien life. US and other astronomers have been looking, in one way or another, for decades. So far, that has been without any results, one way or the other.
I happen to be a big-time SF reader, so this interests me. But as a Catholic, I can think of better things for the Vatican to spend its scarce resources on.
Well now, isn’t that something! The church that says it hears directly from God and speaks for him so authoritatively that its adherents are told that the Pope’s word is equal to God’s word, has to turn to bewildered and mistake-prone men and ask them if they think there is “life on other planets”.
Amazing.
INDEED.
I put that link on this thread . . . where I think I’ll confine my comments thereto.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2382663/posts
The Bible is filled with a menagerie of intelligent beings: cherubim, seraphim, angels, etc.
Suggest you actually read up on the real history of the Galileo Episode. The Church has always supported science and technology, and in fact many science developments were done by church people (Mendelian genetics, geologic stratigraphy, the "Big Bang" theory, and a host of others).
The industrial revolution would have happened 200 years sooner than it did if Henry VIII hadn't disbanded the Catholic monasteries. Recent archeaology at monastic sites show that some English "techno-monks" were on the verge of discovering how to make steel far earlier than actually happened.
You know, I don't remember what precipitated her saying it, but my high school sophomore biology teacher and homeroom moderator, Sister Ave Maria, said almost exactly the same thing. That was in the sixties.
I don’t go back that far (LOL) but I read it somewhere in my homeschooling books .....
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